Without civil society, there is no Europe

Throughout history, Montenegro has been proud of its war successes, age-old freedom in the enslaved Balkans, the struggle against fascism and July 13... But in peacetime, in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, there were no more submissive citizens than hers.

After 1948 and the suffering on Goli Otok, the resistance in this smallest Yugoslav republic almost died out. It bypassed the restless student spring of '68, which swept both Zagreb and Belgrade, the turmoil of the seventies, as well as the new social movements that moved south from Ljubljana on the eve of the end of the SFRY.

Montenegro was a country of courageous individuals, but a dead society. Vlado Dapčević was ready to die for the idea. He slaved and defied for decades. Petar Komnenić and Obren Blagojević were symbols of steadfastness on Goli otok. In the end, one of the most famous dissidents of communism on the planet was our Milovan Đilas. His conflict with Tito and criticism of the new class fueled, from Washington to the Far East, hopes that changes were possible even behind the Iron Curtain.

However, the courage of these individuals did not move the masses... Montenegro was a country of bowed heads, where communist dogma was received perhaps the strongest in this area. Writers, painters, academics, intelligentsia, students and their professors - almost everyone was in one machine, calmed by fear and sinecures.

Montenegro woke up from a decades-long dream in the worst way. Slobodan Milošević brought him to his feet, with Kosovo in 1989, Serbian nationalism and tragic campaigns along Yugoslavia. It is the only Yugoslav republic that remained with Milošević, thus maintaining the falsification of the official Belgrade about the supposed preservation of Yugoslavia. While death tanks and snipers rumbled through the devastated country, the majority of Montenegrin citizens wholeheartedly supported nationalist politics, some participated in crimes, and many remained silent.

That alliance with wartime Belgrade in the dismantling of the common country is one of the biggest stains in Montenegrin history. In all of Milošević's wars of conquest, except for the last one in Kosovo, official Montenegro followed Belgrade. Several war crimes were committed on its territory, but not a single one of those crimes has been solved in full before the captive Montenegrin courts, even after several decades. This society could not find the strength to face what really happened in the nineties, because the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), even after taking off its war uniforms and crossing paths with official Belgrade, did everything to forget its role in the wars on the territory of the former SFRY.

While the majority Montenegro was sinking into darkness, the other, anti-war one was rising. The pillars of resistance to nationalism were strengthened, led by liberals and social democrats, the weekly Monitor and representatives of minority ethnic communities. Thus, in the nineties of the last century, one of the most active civil anti-war movements in the Balkans was born here. Almost thirty percent of the population belonged to this movement, which was best seen through several election cycles in which the opposition and minority anti-war groups had significant support, although not strong enough to shake the government.

In the first months, the refusal to participate in the war was spontaneous, without any solid organization. Resistance was often individual and expressed in different ways. Thus, the reservists mobilized by the JNA for the battlefields in the Dubrovnik hinterland publicly threw down their weapons in front of the officers. Some left the country and fled across Europe and America, and some of the deserters hid from the authorities in other people's houses and apartments.

Intellectuals and journalists opposed war propaganda by refusing assignments and participation in propaganda. The entire editorial set of the state media after the so-called of the anti-bureaucratic revolution was replaced. Later, people also lost their jobs, because they publicly resisted the politics that glorified Milošević, the operations of the JNA and the Montenegrin ruling triumvirate - Momir Bulatović, Milo Đukanović and Svetozar Marović.

Anti-war activists gathered around the first civil organizations, independent media and opposition parties that became organized centers of resistance. On Monitor bombs were thrown, and its founders were declared national traitors. It was similar with other activists.

Strong demonstrations of resistance were organized during the siege of Dubrovnik, in Cetinje and Podgorica. Later that river only expanded. Thousands of people clearly defied the politics of force and conflict in the squares.

In parallel with the anti-war resistance, civil organizations were strengthened, which have a huge merit in promoting the values ​​of a civil and open society. Since the beginning of the 2000s, organizations for the protection of human rights and freedoms, women, the media, minorities, nature, against corruption, for the rule of law have played an increasingly important role in the Europeanization of society and the violation of the DPS monopoly.

Civil society organizations at the very beginning had the support of the Soros Foundation. Later came the support of others from the European Union and the USA. All this influenced the organizational and personnel strengthening and professionalization of this sector.

Changes in the discourse in Montenegro, above all its turning towards the West, Europe, would be unthinkable without the action of civil sector organizations and its leaders. After the end of the wars, they imposed here topics that are crucial for joining the EU. And that long before Montenegro signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU.

It could be said that the sector's first major victory over government monopolies was the defense of the Tara in 2005, when, after joint actions by civil society organizations, the media, and citizens, a Resolution on the protection of this river was voted in the Montenegrin Parliament. The resolution was a victory of the united resistance forces over the government's intention to submerge the Tara for the construction of a hydroelectric plant, whose canyon is one of the most spectacular in the world under UNESCO protection.

After Tara, other battles took place. After the opening of negotiations with the EU, the ruling DPS had to accept civil society as a partner due to the insistence of Brussels. That partnership, however, was more declarative, which is best shown by the campaigns in the pro-government media against the most prominent representatives of civil society, such as those against Vanja Ćalović and Daliborka Uljarević.

Despite all the obstacles, the civil sector in Montenegro, together with the European Union, is crucial for Montenegro's transition to democracy.

That transition is not over yet, although this country replaced the three-decade-old government for the first time in last year's elections. The change of government, however, did not free the imprisoned institutions nor did it lead to the dismantling of the monopoly way of management in almost all spheres of society. Neither a functional democracy nor the rule of law has yet been established in Montenegro. Polarization in society is great, nationalism and clericalization are a serious threat.

As a civil society, no one has been able to oppose nationalism and dangerous divisions that lead to conflicts and destruction so clearly. Therefore, strengthening the role of the civil sector is of crucial importance if Montenegro really wants to become the next member of the European Union and a society of free people, and not submissive followers of the disastrous ideologies of the past.

The author is the president of the Center for Investigative Journalism

The column is published through the project "Different paths - common values", which is carried out by the Center for Civic Education, in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation from Berlin, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights from Zagreb, the Association for Modern History from Sarajevo and the ZfD Forum - office from Belgrade . The project is supported by the EU, through the Europe for Citizens program. The column was originally published on the European Forum platform https://sharedvalues.me/bez-civilnog-drustva-nema-evrope/